


You're the Pacific and I'm the Atlantic, In the End, We're Both So Far Away

by mxgnificent



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Underage Drinking, calum is just sort of clueless in this whole thing, this story is pretty much random
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-02-20 02:08:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2411048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mxgnificent/pseuds/mxgnificent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having lost his hearing at a young age, Luke has been adamant on being normal. Though, kids made fun and talked (literally) behind his back. Now re-entering secondary school, his hopes of everyone forgetting he couldn’t hear for crap was over and he was the quiet, lonely, slightly-bad-ass-looking kid who just seemed like he was the epitome of happiness. </p><p>Then Ashton, being the true sport he is, almost knocked Luke out with a door and made his nose bleed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This story was pretty much one of the most random things I've ever written. This being the story first story I've written for this site, I thought I would make it somewhat interesting and including my favorite people. Luke's personality is basically me and his inner thoughts are practically mine, so through this story, you'll not only be going through my pretend Luke's thoughts, but mine as well.

 

Hearing was _necessary_ and Luke hated it.

 

His high hopes of being able to hear were inevitably crushed when the doctor’s had told him the cochlear transplant did not work. Of course, being younger, he didn’t understand why it didn’t work. He could never have the courage to ask his mother why. He knew it hurt for her to think about it, even though he knew nothing about it. He remembered a few years back, when he was around twelve, he asked his mother why he couldn’t hear like the other kids. Her eyes filled with tears faster than the tap came on and she replied back that it was her fault.

 

Luke didn’t think much about it then, but his curiosity has peaked. He’ll be in year eleven when the school year starts and he feels as if he’s old enough to know what happened to him. He was both reluctant and excited to attend school once more. His excitement was just the feeling of being around other people aside from his family, but the reluctantness came from the exact reason of the excitement. He remembered back in primary school how kids would tease him because he was different. Everyday, he came home, tears filling his eyes, even though he had no clue what anyone had said to him. Teasing came in so many different forms, they didn’t have to use words to tell Luke they thought he was an outcast.

 

Tomorrow was the day. He hoped every night since his mother agreed to let him go back to public school that kids would be different from nearly ten years ago, that they weren’t cruel and obnoxious. He didn’t have much faith in his hopes. He would go to a new school with new people and he knew no one. He was immediately going to be marked as someone who everyone needed to stay away from, or so he thought.

 

As he lay in bed that night, thinking up all the scenarios that could possibly happen, he had fallen asleep and before he knew it, it was five in the morning. It was like he was genetically engineered to wake up at five o’clock. Ever since he was a child, his mother woke him up at precisely five every morning to get him used to the early mornings. Now, he had a ticking clock in his head, and on that second it hit five, he woke up.

 

He rubbed his eyes, not being able to see in the dark. He did his usual routine in the morning. He stayed in bed for half an hour, turned on the lights, cringed in uncomfortableness, then slept for another half an hour. He walked into his ensuite, nearly bumping into the unopened door. His drowsiness had not gone away after he took a cold, refreshing shower. He was just as awake as he was nearly two hours ago. He glanced at himself in the mirror, pursing his lips to see his brand new lip ring. He was dork for getting it, his brothers even told him so, but he couldn’t help but make himself stand out even more.

 

He made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t be that dead kid or anything along those lines. He just wanted to be Luke Hemmings, another nobody passing through the halls of the worst public secondary school system in the town- quite possibly country. He anticipated on making new friends, being positive, and just being himself. He’s received compliments on his sunny disposition often and he wants to be the person to brighten up everyone’s day. No more sulking in the corners of the cafeteria or pointedly ignoring people in the hallways. He was going to be somewhat of an interesting person and people were going to pay attention to him.

 

He looked normal. His clothes were average. The jeans he changed into were ripped to near the seams, his shirt was tattered but was covered with a flannel, and his shoes were the dirtiest of them all. To top that look off, he grabbed his beanie to cover up the mess of his hair and wore a tad too much cologne. He grabbed his backpack and headed downstairs.

 

Jack, his brother, immediately shook his head. “Jeez, I thought you wanted to fit in, not stick out like a sore thumb.” He grabbed at his shirt, untucked it from his jeans, unbuttoned the flannel, uncuffed the jeans, and slid one strap off of Luke’s shoulders. He shook his head once more. “And take off the belt, would you?” His signs were large and extravagant.

 

Their mother scolded Jack. “Stop that, would you,” she pointed towards Jack, “I think he looks fine.”

 

“Well, yeah,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes, “I helped him.” His mother gave him a slap on the shoulder and he winced in faux pain. “Fine, let him be the dorky kid he is.” His mother glared and shooed him away. Though, Jack didn’t sign the last sentence and Luke had no idea what he had said. He knew his mother wouldn’t tell him.

 

Ben had come down last that morning, tired from the night before. He had been stressing over things that were completely unnecessary to stress over. Ben had a knack for doing that, the same as Jack had a knack for being a bit of a dick, and Luke has his heart set on being Mr. Brightside.

 

“Ben, drive your brothers to school today,” his mother signed, clapping to have everyone’s attention, “I’m already late for work.” Ben nodded whilst yawning, his eyes staring straight ahead as he snatched his keys and walked out the door. Their mother only frowned. She turned to Luke and held her arms out once more. Luke was engulfed in a hug and he couldn’t help but embrace back. “Good lucky,” she signed, a worried smile painting her lips.

 

Jack patted his back, signaling it was time to go. Luke grimaced, holding his one backpack strap against his shoulder as he was being pushed out of the house. Ben had already started up the car. Jack beat him to the passenger seat and Luke was stuck in the back, as usual. The three boys suddenly noticed the time and realized they had minutes before the first bell rang.

 

The drive was a blur. Luke was sure Ben drove through three red lights, sped up through a yellow, and went even faster on a green. He had never been more scared for his life then that morning. His brothers, despite their daily teasing, looked out for Luke and made him feel safe whenever they were around, but they all knew the importance of getting to school on time. Or at least they knew the wrath of their mother if they didn’t get to school on time.

 

Ben shooed them out of the car because he knew that he couldn’t find a parking space any time soon. The car sped down the parking lot, ignoring the speed bumps all together. Luke stood for a moment, staring at the large school. His experience in large areas filled with people have not been good so far, so he hoped that today (and the rest of the year) would be the best time he could possibly have.

 

Jack elbowed him. He looked up and saw his older brother grinning down at him. “Don’t stick out too much, alright?” Luke only smiled, nodding his head as they departed ways.

 

The first bell rang as soon as his foot left the parking lot. He was then in a sea full of curious eyes. Those eyes immediately noticed him because he was new, not because he was deaf, he kept telling himself. He would have to stop by the office before going anywhere else.

 

He was extremely relieved when his mother told him he didn’t need a translator following him around every day for the rest of the time he attended this school. Although, the school wanted to make every precaution to make sure Luke wasn’t in any imminent danger, or translated into: the school doesn’t want any more bad publicity because some deaf kid got ran over by a car or caused an explosion because he couldn’t hear the instructions. His mother told him that the school ensured that Luke would be comfortable in his classes. The school even went all out by telling each of Luke’s teachers to go a bit more into detail about certain things but make it generalized so it wouldn’t look like it was just towards Luke. That didn’t make him feel like a kid at all.

 

He made it to the office which was oddly empty for it being the first day of school. He spotted one of the secretaries that only were ever busy with secretly playing Tetris on their computers. She noticed him as soon as he walked up. She smiled, her lips moving fastly and not enunciating at all. Luke frowned, pointing to his ear. Her brow furrowed for a moment before her eyes brightened. She spoke once more, it was a fast blur to Luke, and then she was up and gone from her seat.

 

Right, Luke thought, not everyone can sign.

 

The lady came back with an older lady whose grey hairs stood out more than the blue in the sky. He wasn’t sure what his first opinion of her was, but the first words was: red. She wore a red bandana around her neck and had red-rounded rimmed glasses. The only thing she wore that was not red was her lipstick which was a neon orange.

 

“Hello,” she signed, her fingernails a bright red, “I’m Ms. Dune, you must be Luke Hemmings.” Luke nodded, resisting an eye roll. She was handed paperwork by the secretary and she quickly scanned over it. “It says you don’t need a translator, so I’ll just tell you what the school has done to make you feel more welcome.” Then, it went on.

 

Luke hardly paid attention to any of it. He understood that there was a sign language class taken as a foreign language and he wasn’t the only student who was deaf there. He shook his head once in a while to at least make an effort in looking as if he was interested in any of it. He glanced quickly at the clock, noticing it was already five minutes into the school day, then he was back to boring into the hands of Red Dune.

 

“So, you may get to class now,” she ended, finally, “and Ms. Clarke will write you an excuse for being late to first block.” Luke nodded his head, turning to the secretary who was now Ms. Clarke.

 

She bounced in her seat when Red Dune told her to write an excuse for Luke and he held back a snicker. Her hands hurried to find a pen, throwing down any blue or red pens. Luke pulled a black pen from his pocket and offered it to her. She was stressed enough, the least he could do was offer her one of the most mainstream color of pens in history. She thanked him, or at least that’s what it looked like to Luke. She scribbled down on the back of a tardy note the reason for his lateness. She handed him the slip with his pen. Luke only took the paper, shaking his head at the pen. She smiled, another thank you.

 

Luke nodded in response. He tucked the piece of paper into his pocket. He headed out the door, his hand barely on the handle before the door flew open. Before he knew it, he was struck by the heavy door and he was on the floor. Everything hurt and he tasted blood in his mouth. He groaned, his hand instinctively flying up to his mouth, but it wasn’t his mouth that was bleeding. He slowly touched his nose, hissing in pain. Grimacing at the blood on his hand, he used his other hand to prop himself up.

Red Dune was suddenly right next to him. Though she was pushed away by someone else. He glanced up, sniffing the blood back into his nose. His eyes widened a little as he saw who pushed Red Dune back. It was another student, hair curly and resembled the color of sand, his eyes big and hazel. He had a faded Blink 182 shirt and ripped jeans on, his shirt really accenting his arms as he held his hand out. He seemed to be saying something, a panicked look on his face.

 

Luke found himself grasping the boy’s hand. His feet had no help in him getting up. The boy’s one arm was stronger than Luke’s upper body strength. Their hands were still clasped together and Luke had no way of thanking the boy. He felt as if he was being stared down by the boy. He seemed older, or at least looked older. They were nearly the same height, the boy only a few inches taller. Their hands were soon against their sides and Red Dune came over, frantically waving her hands, calling for the nurse. She hurried the nurse, telling her to make the bleeding stop as soon as she could. He could see the nurse rolling her eyes and an obvious scoff she wanted to let out.

 

The nurse smiled, a box of tissues in her hand. Luke took a few gratefully, holding them to his nose with his other hand. She adjusted his head so it was held higher and his eyes were looking at the ceiling. He waved his hand that had his blood on it and she quickly escorted him to the sink. She turned it on and lead his hand under the running water. He cringed at the sudden cool water but rubbed the palm of his hand with his fingers. He wiped his hand on his jeans and he turned back to the nurse. He let his head straight for a moment, removing the tissues from his nose.

 

Shaking her head, she lead him to a chair and sat him down. Luke watched as she took a bottle out and he immediately tensed. He hated any kind of pain, whether it made him better in the outcome. She poured the liquid onto a cotton ball and turned to Luke. She frowned when she noticed him tense and leaning a farther away from her as she walked toward him. Using her basic knowledge on sign language, she said to be calm and that it wouldn’t hurt. It was broken, but Luke understood. It didn’t make him less tense, but at least she tried to comfort him in some way.

 

She smiled. She first wiped the nearly dried blood from his nose. He winced from the pain. She quickly signed once more that his nose was a bit bruised but it was barely noticeable. It took him awhile to understand what she was trying to say, with her having to spell certain words out. He shook his head, finally understanding. She didn’t seem frustrated as some adults were with him and for that, he was grateful. He glanced at her nametag, learning that her name was Laurel.

 

Before he knew it, he was wincing once more as she applied the medicine. It burned slightly, making him cringe and close his eyes tightly. Her smile was then visible once more when she removed the cotton ball from his nose and he opened his eyes once more. “All better,” she signed, her smile wide.

 

“Thank you, Laurel,” he replied back, spelling her name slowly enough for her to catch on. Her smile gradually became larger, a smile which Luke reciprocated.

 

He threw the tissues into the trash as he walked out of the nurse’s office. He was surprised to find the boy from earlier still in the office, seated in of the uncomfortable plastic chairs. The boy’s eyes soon lit up as he saw Luke walk out of the office. Luke noticed the notebook on the boy’s lap and the pen he was twirling with his fingers. The boy jumped up from the seat, his backpack slightly weighing him down. He tore a page from the notebook, folding it into eighths and handing it to Luke. He gave him an apologetic smile and left the office.

 

Luke furrowed his eyebrows at the note. He looked around the office, finding Ms. Clarke’s smile that practically said to open the note. He ignored it and left the office as well. He reached into his pocket, finding the late slip and his schedule. He unfolded the schedule, reading that his first class as maths. Letting out a sigh, he quickly scanned where the class was and who taught it before crumpling it back up and shoving down his pocket. He headed towards the wing where the maths classes were, finally spotting room fifty-four. Through the whole walk to the class, he didn’t spot the curly-haired boy even though he left shortly after he did.

 

Before entering the class, Luke pulled out the note. It was sloppily folded and was teared out messily. He unfolded it carefully, making sure not to rip it any more than it already was. The whole page was nearly filled with edgy handwriting and smudged pen. He read:

 

_I’m sorry about making your nose bleed and shit. I didn’t really mean it. That weird lady that wears red all the time yelled at me because you were extremely hurt or whatever. She sort of left in this fit, ignoring me like I was some disease. Ms. Clarke filled me in on the whole thing though. I guess I don’t really have much courage to talk to you instead of giving you this note, but you have the courage to come here knowing how society is. It’s all pretty messed up, but I’m glad you decided to come despite everything. I like your guts._

_Sorry about the bleeding again, Ashton._

 

Luke smiled. He folded the note back the way it was creased and neatly placed it in his back pocket. He entered the classroom, his late slip in his hand. He could care less of the odd stares he received, he made full frontal eye contact with the teacher, Mr. Jacobson, and sat down in the seat he was assigned to.

 

He hated that it was the front seat, but he understood why. He was relieved when he found out the class was more note-taking than it was listening. Maths was always an easy concept for him, he just hated learning it. He often wondered if anyone was talking about him, or trying to get his attention. He knew it was unlikely since the teacher was talking to the class and he was sat the front, but he always wondered.

 

The class block flew past quickly as the rest of the day did. He found himself at his locker, making himself look busy because he dreaded lunch. He knew he wasn’t going to have anyone to sit with. He tried to remind himself of his pact to himself. He wanted to be someone that made everyone smile. He slammed his locker shut, unaware of the stares and jumps of shock received because of that slam.

 

He fully ignored the signing class Red Dune was talking about earlier. He found himself at the lunch area. No one in particular was staring at him but him being who he was, he felt as if all eyes were on him. He walked through the quad, pointedly ignoring any stares. He shook his head, keeping his head up and his eyes staring at other people. He wanted to be the one who made everyone smile. He had a large smile on his face suddenly and the scene changed. People weren’t staring at him anymore, they were returning his smile. Luke found himself colliding into someone suddenly. He groaned, the feeling of deja vu happening too soon.

 

He glanced up, holding his head. There was a boy with green hair and pale skin, cursing and hissing as he held his head. His eyes met Luke’s and he froze for a moment. “You’re Luke Hemmings, right?” Luke was taken aback when the boy started to sign. He was either a member of that stupid sign language club Red Dune was blabbing about or he was the only other deaf student at the school. “I’m Michael,” he continued, showing his the sign for his name, “I’m the other kid that can’t hear for shit.” Luke smiled, with teeth and all, finally glad to find someone else he could talk to.

 

“Hey, mind if I sit wherever you are?” he asked. Michael nodded his head, gesturing for Luke to follow him. They were still outside, Michael not even glancing at the direction of the cafeteria. He lead them to a table farthest from the cafeteria from possible. There were already a few people sat there. None of them were signing as they talked to each other.

 

Michael turned. “We don’t sit in the cafeteria,” he said, filling Luke in, “all the dicks are in there.” Luke smirked and nodded his head. He didn’t want to deal with dicks anyways. Michael then turned to the crowd of people, clapping to grab their attention. “This is Luke,” he announced as everyone turned and faced him, “he’s going to sit with us from now on, no question.” They all nodded, letting the whole situation slide as if it didn’t matter much.

 

Luke smiled, but he felt as if it was strained now. All the sudden, he was being engulfed with questions. One of the lads, a dark haired one, asked him if he was deaf, straightforwardly. Another, a boy with oddly dyed blonde hair, asked him if he surfed and another asked if he wanted him to tell the others to back off. He was about to answer the third guy when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, his heart skipping a beat.

 

He glanced behind him and found that it was Ashton. There was a large smile on his face, dimples showing for the first time and his eyes were bright. Luke looked back at the table, they were all either staring at him or glaring at Ashton. He turned back, but it seemed as if someone was talking to Ashton. He followed Ash’s eyes to the boy who asked Luke earlier if he was straightforwardly deaf. His eyes were on Ashton once more and his smile was gone, replaced with a deep frown. He gave a sad smile to Luke before his hand slid off his shoulder as he walked away.

 

He turned to the boy that obviously did something to make Ashton walk away. “What the hell?” He turned to Michael, then. Michael was grimacing, uncomfortable.

 

“Calum isn’t very fond of Ashton,” he answered Luke, “not a lot of us are.” Luke was about to ask the reason, but it was as if Michael read his mind. “I know, he seems like such a nice guy, I’m sure he is. I, personally, never talked to the guy in my life, reasons very obvious, but Calum hates the guy ‘cause he’s a dick. It’s all he’ll tell me about him.” Luke was confused, equally as Michael was when he was filling Luke in.

 

Luke did not let the subject go but he talked to the other at the table. He learned their names were Niall, Alex, Jack, and pointedly ignored Calum. Calum seemed like a nice guy. He made jokes often and he and Niall laughed often. They weren’t used to speaking in sign language all the time. He was fine with it, though. He knew the consequences of going to school. He knew that not everyone could communicate with him as easily as Michael could.

 

He learned a lot about Michael, as well as background story. His whole life was explained in the period of thirty minutes. Everyone had gone up to leave and go to their lockers or show up to their classes early. Michael and Luke were remaining and their conversation was slowly dying out. It was soon that Michael left, not before saying, “Your lip ring is fucking awesome.”

 

Luke stood up then, scoping the area to see if he could spot Ashton. He felt somewhat relieved when he found Ashton only two tables away, sitting alone. He walked over, placing a hand on Ashton’s shoulder. Ashton jumped, quickly turning to meet eyes with Luke. He calmed, laughing. He patted the seat next to him. As Luke sat down, he took out the note Ashton had given him earlier and a pen. He unfolded the paper and turned it down, so the side with nothing written on it showed. He scribbled a _thank you_ on the corner of the paper. Ashton smiled at Luke, searching for a writing utensil in his mess of a backpack. _I think you’re pretty bad arse_ , in the same hurried writing used for the note was what Ashton wrote. Luke let out a choked laugh, replying with, _And to think some people just say you’re welcome in return_. Luke faced Ashton, watching him throw his head back in a laugh. He frowned, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to hear that laugh, ever.

 

Ashton’s laugh faded away with his smile. _Something wrong?_ he wrote. Luke just shook his head. He looked around, seeing everyone starting to dismiss themselves. He figured the bell rang, so he stood up and left, without saying anything to Ashton. He felt Ashton’s hand grasp his hand, but he ignored it, letting Ashton’s hand slip through his fingers.

The rest of the day ended as normally as he thought it would. He met up with Jack and Ben at the front of the school. They walked through the front of the school and through the parking lot before they made to Ben’s car which was parked two blocks from the school. It was when they were fully buckled in the car that Jack turned around with a grin.

 

“Girls are totally talking about you,” he teased, “it’s like they’re star-strucked.”

 

Luke grinned. At least one part of his day turned out well. He hadn’t fully done what he wanted to accomplish but he had two years left, he was sure he could do a lot in that long span of time.

 

 


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mentions of a certain curly-haired Adonis and some Cashton action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the month-late update, but a lot has been going on. To be honest, this is just a fill in and the next chapter will be much more enthusiastic and action-packed. Although, it might not come out until next month, you never know- I never know. I've been drinking coffee for the past three hours and can't stand the noise coming from my brother's bedroom. I need new coffee recipes, the one I'm doing is getting old.

Sometime during lunch the previous day, Michael had stolen Luke’s phone and put his contact information in it. Not that Luke was complaining about having his first contact that wasn’t his family, but he sensed no privacy. Michael seemed like a pretty open guy, as Luke recalled, but he remembered nothing about him pulling out his phone from his back pocket and having it for who-knows how long. He wasn’t sure what his impression of Michael was, but it all changed when he started having a conversation with him over text.

 

It was early in the morning, at least for Michael- because that’s what he said when he messaged Luke at six in the morning. Luke had first ignored it, he was too busy doing nothing. He just felt too lazy to talk to anyone that morning. He had his phone tucked into his back pocket all morning though. He even beat his mother downstairs and made breakfast for the whole family. It was nearly seven when Luke replied back to Michael. They started talking about Calum then somehow moved to Ashton before Michael averted it back to Calum then Luke back to Ashton. It was all confusing until Jack told him to get his ass in the car and was scolded by their mother.

 

Ben and Jack both teased Luke when his kept glued to the screen of his phone, anticipating whatever wild thing Michael would say next. His brothers thought it was some hot girl he met the first day of school, but how far they were from knowing anything. The ride to school was longer than yesterday’s. He expected that since there was no chance they were going to be late and his brother was calm as usual. It was back to normal.

 

Luke and Michael messaged each other until they ran into one another in the hallway. People laughed, but they couldn’t hear so they didn’t care. Calum, who shot glares at the people who laughed, was with Michael. He had a bright smile that matched his oddly colorful green shirt- which Luke wanted to gag at but kept silent. Michael stepped closer to Luke, which made Calum step closer to Luke. Michael then stepped back, but Calum did not. Luke just smiled, unsure of what both of their intentions were. Michael reciprocated the smile, then left.

 

Luke’s mouth held agape for a moment. Calum had a grin on his face that stretched miles wide. Luke couldn’t help but smile at Calum’s happy manner. He stuffed his phone in his pocket. “So, what’s up with Michael just ditching us like that?” Luke asked, trying to make light conversation.

 

Calum frowned for a moment, but his smile was up in nothing short of a millisecond. “Michael’s Michael, I have no idea what goes through his mind half the time, or, I guess, all the time,” Calum responded, his signing still as shaky as it was yesterday. Luke smiled at his effort.

 

“I wouldn’t really know what Michael thinks,” he signed back, “barely know him and all, you know.” He grinned. He realized he might be signing a bit too fast as Calum’s brow furrow as his eyes try to take in what Luke had just said. “Sorry,” he said, “I didn’t mean to go all fast on the signing.”

 

Calum smiled. “It’s no problem,” he replied. Luke realized how easy those words were formed by Calum. He must have said that one too many times to Michael.

 

They stood in silent for a moment. Calum had resorted to leaning against a locker that was most likely not his. Luke stood and wondered once more. He was about to start another conversation when the first bell rang. He quickly waved a goodbye to Calum without waiting for a response. He needed to rush out of the awkwardness and to his class across the campus before the tardy bell rang. His eyes were focused on his feet and only looked up when he was shoved in the shoulder- which was every three seconds. He didn’t realize he would run, full-on, into people until he ran right into none other than Ashton the Curly-Haired-Adonis.

 

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Ashton spoke in a mutter before he realized who he was talking to. His mouth then fell silent as he bent down to help pick up the flying papers for Luke. Luke glanced up and had an appreciated smile on his face. Ashton had no way of communicating with him and in the awkwardness, he helped Luke pick up his papers, and fled to his class.

 

Luke frowned, feeling the pang of hurt in his chest where Ashton shoved his books into. He winced slightly and breathed out, looking behind him to see that Ashton was long gone. He sighed, picking up his pace once more and dashing to his class.

 

Like yesterday, his class was a full-on bore and he paid no attention to it. He most likely should have taken notes, but his mind was on other things. He never was called on in any of his classes but the attention was always on him. He never noticed the peering eyes on him as he doodled in his notebook, tapped his pencil, and looked out the window. His interest was in the trees planted outside the school. The trees were ugly as could be but looked beautiful when the wind made them sway.

 

All his classes consisted of him doing those things: not paying attention and capturing nature. Until lunch, that was. He was always on the lookout for Michael so he didn’t have to be alone to eat his lunch. To avoid the lunch line and the so-called “dicks” Michael was talking about yesterday, Luke had brought his own lunch. His mother had made it specially for him. Luke always told his mum she cared too much, but she said the same back to Luke, along with saying it was a good trait to have.

 

He spotted Ashton before Michael. He noticed that Ashton was sitting with who Luke could only imagine to be his friends. It had completely left his mind that Ashton had friends. He shouldn’t have cared, but seeing the fun he was having with his friends; laughing and smiling together, made him wish he was with Ashton. He understood that Ashton has no use of sign language, but he wished that he knew.

 

Speech therapy was terrible for Luke and he was too stubborn to take it. He had tried when he was younger, but his mother had said that he was always a spoiled brat about it and never wanted to go to the classes. That’s when his mother had settled on no cochlear ear transplants and speech therapy. Again, a topic they never brought up.

 

Luke suddenly felt an arm wrap around his shoulders. He jumped, his heart skipping a beat before he realized the arm belonged to Michael. He slapped Michael chest with the back of his hand. Michael smiled, a truly mocking smile, as he pulled Luke towards the table they sat at yesterday. The only difference was there wasn’t a Niall, Jack, and Alex in sight. It was only Calum, sat comfortably with a book in his lap, avoiding any eye contact.

 

Luke turned to Michael. Michael responded, “He reads when Niall and them aren’t here because it’s easier for him to pay attention. He’s sort of actually a nerd about it, he just doesn’t want to admit it. He’s into Shakespeare and shit.” Luke let out a breathy giggle, smiling largely. Luke was into Shakespeare and shit. He learned at a young age that he would never be able to hear again, so he took up many hobbies. One of the hobbies being reading plays and poetry.

 

His eyes were brought over to Calum when he had noticed his hands were flailing in the air. “Right, Luke?” was all that he had caught when he finally focused onto Calum. Luke shook his head, confused. Calum frowned.

  


“He wanted you to agree with him that Voltaire is great or some shit like that,” Michael said, relaxing into his seat and resting his head onto his arms.

 

Luke turned to Calum and smiled. “I’m not much of a fan of Voltaire, but his works are fine enough,” he replied, slowing the rate of his hand’s motion and keeping his eyes concentrated on his moving hands.

 

Calum’s eyes moved as if he were reading a book, his brows furrowed as if he was contemplating something. A few seconds passed and Calum’s smile returned. He nodded, understanding what Luke said. His fingers slowly crawled back to the ends of the pages of his book, avoiding contact with Luke once more.

 

It only took a minute until Calum was engulfed in his book once more. Luke felt a tap on his shoulder and his head whipped to Michael, but his head was still turned down on his folded arms. His eyes noticed the shadow of the hand that tapped him. He saw Ashton standing directly behind him, a shy smile on his face.

 

Ashton brought a hand up and Luke was surprised. He wondered if Ashton was finally going to try to talk to him in his way of communication. It ended up to be just an awkwardly slow wave of greeting. Luke glanced back to Calum who was now nervously flickering his eyes back and forth from his book to Ashton. He seemed to be gripping the book tighter and his lips were pursed in a straight line. When Luke turned back to Ashton, Ashton’s eyes were sad and his smile was faded.

 

Luke had no choice but to stare at Ashton in awkward silence. Ashton made no move to communicate with Luke and if Luke could, he would try to talk to Ashton. However, at the moment, all Ashton did was sit on the opposite side of Luke- the one Michael wasn’t snoring all over on- and scooted close to Luke. Ashton offered a warm smile, his arm like a barricade between their two bodies. Luke realized it was a safety barrier, not for Ashton, but for him.

 

“Hi,” Ashton signed, his fingers twitching slightly.

 

Luke’s smile grew large. He signed back slowly, trying to keep back his excitement, “Hey.” Incredible how one word could get him so riled up.

 

“That’s all I know,” Ashton said, his fingers curling in and out nervously. Luke let out a breathy laugh, shrugging his shoulders.

 

“At least you know something,” he said quickly. Ashton’s eyebrows furrowed and Luke only shook his head.

 

Suddenly, Ashton reached for into his pocket and pulled out a pen. His hands fiddled with the zipper of his backpack. In his hand, he held a pad of sticky notes. Luke’s face showed confusion, he knew it. Ashton glanced back at grinned, shouldering Luke lightly. Luke’s blush was noticeable and he turned to look away. His eyes drooped when he realized Calum was no longer sitting across from him and Michael was a few feet away, sleeping soundly. His head tossed back and was met with a bright orange paper with something scribbled on it.

 

He gingerly took the note from Ashton’s hands. When he saw the seven digits. he melted on the inside. His blush was as prominent as ever and he crumpled the paper into his fist. He felt Ashton jump beside him and he quickly faced him. Ashton’s curly locks fell in front of his eyes and his hands talked for him. “Bell” was all his hands told, shakily and nearly not able to understand if it weren’t for the hundreds of kids in the quad running around to get to their classes.

 

Luke just shook his head, understanding what Ashton meant. Ashton smiled softly, grasping Luke’s hand shortly before letting it go and standing up. His back was straight and his face was solemn as he turned and walked away. Luke’s eyes rolled back. In the years of being only around his family, being touched by someone else intimately as Ashton did was a treasure. Soon, Ashton was gone from the rushed crowd and out of sight.

 

Luke found himself alone. He was not sure whether the bell rang or not, but he sat on the cafeteria bench alone; or nearly alone. He glanced over to find that Michael was fast asleep just a few tables away from where Luke was. He grinned to himself. He slid over, tapping Michael on the back lightly. Michael’s head shot up faster than lightning. If he could curse, he would have done it right then.

 

“Did the bell ring?” he asked, his gestures hurried and warbled. Luke nodded his head. His lips seemed to keep mouthing something. Luke couldn’t tell whether it was “shit” or “late” so he just ignored him. He watched as Michael grabbed his backpack after shoving his many unneeded items into it. He took hold of Luke’s arm and started dragging him along. “We’re late, and all you can do is sit and grin?” He seemed to be in exasperation, shaking his head.

 

Luke noticed that Michael was headed towards the boy’s locker room, which most likely meant P.E. He gave him an apologizing smile and departed their ways. Luke found himself in the eighties wing, busting through double doors to get to his class on time. He knew he was already late, the halls were barren. Or so he thought it was. As he entered the hall, nearing his biology class, he saw Ashton. The sight reminded him of little Johnny O’Brien who was caught sticking gum Lisa Gerber’s hair during a playdate and was told to stand outside until his parents came to pick him up. Luke always wanted to play with them, but his mother never allowed it. He was too different.

 

Ashton, however, was not little Johnny O’Brien, Ashton’s annoying neighbor from his toddler age. Although, Ashton was leaning against the cement wall with his head pounding against it repeatedly like little Johnny O’Brien when he had done something wrong. Luke wondered if Ashton was caught doing something wrong. Then, he realized he wasn’t five and longing to be outside playing with kids his age.

 

He walked towards Ashton, completely missing his class that he was already late for. His excuse would be simple: he couldn’t find his classroom; he was lost. He never took his disability as an advantage, but he wasn’t thinking clearly, he was thinking Ashton.

 

His hand reached up, his finger pointed as he poked Ashton’s side. Ashton jumped, a sound of laughter escaping his lips. His earphones popped off and were left dangling. He took a few steps to the right, his hand over his chest. “You scared me, Luke,” he laughed breathily. Luke’s eyebrows furrowed and his smile quickly became a frown. Ashton’s smile faded. “Fuck, I’m sorry,” he said. “Fuck,” he muttered, “I did it again.” He groaned, his hand hitting his forehead.

 

Luke realized what Ashton had been doing. He was bringing himself down. Luke understood that people didn’t always speak sign language and he wasn’t expecting them to learn just for him. He shook his head, resting a hand on Ashton’s shoulder. He noticed he was slightly taller than Ashton, just by a hair, but he was taller. Ashton’s face was red from either embarrassment or fluster.

 

Luke smiled. “It’s okay,” he signed slowly, making sure Ashton understood the two simple words. With Luke’s hand still rested on Ashton’s shoulder, he felt the sudden sigh of relief Ashton took. “Do you have a notebook?” Luke tried to emphasize the common gestures along with the key word of the sentence. He opted into gesturing a pen with his left hand and a paper with his right, but he figured Ashton would understand it sooner or later. As Luke thought, Ashton realized what Luke was asking for thirty seconds into Luke exasperating “notebook.”

Luke was almost elated and relieved when Ashton brought out a torn notebook and a ballpoint pen from his dirty backpack. He watched as he did. His backpack was a dirt brown color which Luke suspected wasn’t that color to begin with. The backpack had one too many broken zippers and stains for it to be only used this school year. His notebook was nearly worse than his backpack. The purple notebook was torn at the edges from what looked like it being wet, it had a large coffee stain on the cover and the binding was halfway torn. The only decent object he pulled out was his pen which was in mint condition.

 

Ashton handed his awful notebook to Luke along with his sleek pen. The first thing Luke realized about the notebook was that it wasn’t a school notebook, but something personal. It held the notes of Ashton’s mind. It was music. Lyrics upon lyrics and scribbles and drabbles. Luke smiled softly. He noticed from his peripheral vision that Ashton’s eyes were blown wide. His hands quickly went out to snatch the notebook from Luke, but Luke was surprisingly quick.

 

“This is beautiful, Ashton,” Luke signed, the notebook tucked in his armpit. Ashton just shook his head in response, a faint blush appearing on his cheekbones. Luke held back in saying Ashton was beautiful, too. Maybe he could say it, just quickly to get it over with.

 

Before Luke knew it, the notebook was snatched back and replaced with another one. The notebook now in Luke’s armpit was a onyx-black one, not as torn up as the previous one, but still not in the best condition. Luke opened it up to find Ashton’s Spanish notes. Luke gave a wry smile and shook his head. He slid down the hard, cement wall and clicked open the pen. He flipped through to a blank page, avoiding the slightly wet side of the notebook. He wondered how many times Ashton spilled something in his backpack. From looking at the notebook in his hands at the moment, he considered it to be a hefty amount.

 

_Why are you out here and not in class?_

 

Luke noticed his hand writing was awful, but he didn’t care. He handed the notebook to Ashton, who was now next to Luke. They were both in close proximity, it made Luke shiver in the slightest possible way. Ashton’s curls fell, covering his eyes or sticking to his forehead. He noticed that his lips were constantly bitten by himself and run through by his tongue. Luke was slightly surprised when the notebook was set back onto his lap, along with the pen.

 

 _I’m bad arse, who needs school?_ Luke snorted at that. _How about you, I can hardly see you skipping class or am I just too irresistible? It’s the second one, right?_

If he could, Luke would notice the nervousness in Ashton’s tone by the way he wrote. He clicked the pen once more, tapping it against the notebook, thinking about his reply. He wanted to be snarky and chirpy and snappy.

 

 _You caught me red-handed. I can’t stay away from you._ That was his comeback. He sighed at himself.

 

He jumped when he found Ashton’s head leaning over his shoulder, reading what he had wrote down. Luke’s blush came flushing in, tinting his cheeks a soft pink. He ran a hand through his hair and placed the notebook in Ashton’s hands.

 

Suddenly, Ashton’s hand came to a stop as he wrote. His head glanced up and his smile was washed away. Luke was confused. He followed Ashton’s sight to find Red Dune with her hands on her hips and her lips painted bright red. The whole day just began right then.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know this chapter isn't exactly up-to-par with the last chapter or as exciting as a second chapter to a dead-end story could be, but I'm tired. Finals is coming up soon, I'm basically failing math, I can't handle the stress of dance, and on my last essay, I nearly didn't get a good grade on it. I'm also trying to redecorate my room, a happy me equals a happy life; or so they say. Anyone have any ideas? My room is a small square so nothing spectacular can fit in it, but I can make do with like, a lamp, possibly. I've been Kiking and Skyping and messaging and apparently no one knows when track training starts. My rant is over.
> 
> I apologize for any grammar mistakes, I'll fix them as soon as I get at least five, so I have something worth fixing. And I'm actually serious on the new coffee recipes. And maybe a few Tumblr blogs dedicated to Lashton would help. Now I'm just begging. 
> 
> I feel as if I shouldn't be writing stories if I'm not going to be updating as much. I wish I had someone to at least co-author with me so that someone would encourage me to be active. I mean, sure I have friends and a mom that encourages me (even though it's mostly for school and not writing "creatively" for a random site on the internet but still).
> 
> See you next update (aka seven billion light years away),  
> Anika
> 
> P.S. I know that light years measure a distance not a time.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke and Ashton spend some time together and Ashton might be a little bit of a bad influence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted this chapter to be longer than the previous one but it's only a hundred words longer and just slightly bit more exciting.

 

Luke felt Ashton tense immediately. He frowned. He didn’t understand why Red Dune was just out wandering around during class time.

 

Her foot tapped against the wrecked cement of the hallway and she rested her hand against the pole that kept the roof sturdy. Her shoulders moved up and down dramatically, indicating to Luke that she was taking a sigh- a _disappointed_ sigh. He just shook his head, standing up. It wasn’t until then he realized Ashton’s hand was over his. His cheeks flushed red and he cleared his throat, getting rid of the annoying lump.

 

“I’m sorry-” Luke started to sign, but then he had a sudden realization. He could not remember what Red Dune’s name was. He rolled his eyes at himself and grimaced hard. He would slap his hand to his forehead if Red Dune wasn’t standing in front of him, expecting an answer of his actions. Then, Luke thought, he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Sure, he wasn’t in class, but neither was Ashton. If he was going to get into trouble, so was Ashton. He frowned slightly at the thought of him being the reason they got in trouble.

 

Then, it registered to Luke that Red Dune wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. He glanced back to see Ashton, speaking for them. The notebook was packed away into his open backpack that was slung over his shoulder and his pen was held firmly in his hand. Luke wasn’t sure what Ashton was saying, but with his little knowledge of reading lips, he caught the words “my fault,” “detention,” “me,” and “Luke.”

 

His head flipped back over to Red Dune who was now speaking and signing as angrily as she was flustered. “Mr. Irwin,” she stated with a nod of her head, then looked over to Luke, “Mr. Hemmings. Please, come with me to the office.”

 

Luke could feel Ashton’s shoulder slump and realized Ashton was in close proximity to Luke. He jumped when he felt a sudden warmth covering his hand. He glanced over at Ashton and found that he was holding a finger to his lips, indicating to be quiet. As soon as Red Dune turned around with her back towards them both, Ashton slowly moved backwards. When Ashton heard Red Dune’s click of her heels get softer and softer, he bolted, taking Luke with him.

 

Luke wanted to object to whatever Ashton was doing but when he glanced over, he saw the large grin that was on his face. He looked away, looking forward to see that they were heading towards the gate of the school. He skidded to a stop, jerking Ashton toward him. Ashton frowned.

 

It came to Luke then. They had no way of talking to each other- no way of communicating. Ashton’s knowledge of sign language will always be limited and Luke couldn’t speak aloud if his life depended on it. He realized that he was now grasping for air with his hand. He glanced over to see Ashton trying to sign.

 

He perceived fragments of what Ashton wanted to say. “Don’t you want to come with me?” was what Luke could only imagine was what Ashton wanted to say to him. Luke nodded excitedly, blushing for his eagerness.

 

“You were right, you know,” Luke replied, his hands moving painstakingly slow. Ashton’s face was confused and wondering. “I mean, about-” his hand abruptly stopped every other word. He breathed in, cracking his knuckles. “When you said I don’t seem like the kind to skip class,” he filled in, Ashton nodded his head in remembrance. “So, if I can’t even skip class, what makes you think I could skip school?” Ashton was confused once more. Luke could only imagine what Ashton was thinking at the moment, what his eyes were seeing.

 

“I’m guessing that means you’re not going with me,” Ashton slowly replied back. His shoulders seemed to slump and his eyes were drooping.

 

Luke had a thought. He’s been stuck in his house for as long as he could remember, made fun of for as long as he could remember, and his mother was always so protective of him. He never had an exciting day in his life and going with Ashton could be his first. He could do more activities and have more adventures today than he had in the past sixteen years of his life.

 

He smiled. He knew his actions were sudden and Ashton’s face was confused once more. When Luke took hold of Ashton’s hand and deliberately ran through the gates of the school, pointedly avoiding any security or teachers around. He glanced back at Ashton who was now smiling. He gestured with his hand to the school’s parking lot and from then on, Luke let Ashton lead. As they arrived to the parking lot, Ashton fiddled for his car keys in his back pocket. He rang the alarm for his car and there were sudden flashes of light. Luke jumped slightly as he spotted Ashton’s car. His car was amazing. It had a sleek silver matte finish and shined despite it being partly cloudy.

 

Ashton grinned when he spotted Luke’s awe. He let go of his hand, nudging Luke on the side and opening the passenger door into his car. Luke nodded his head in thanks. His head was spinning slightly. He fumbled with the seat belt and buckled in. His eyes were staring at the dice hanging from the rearview mirror. He wouldn’t have known Ashton was already inside of his car if it weren’t for the sudden jump and cringe he had done. His hand went over to the stereo, adjusting the volume so it was lower. Luke frowned, he wouldn’t have known. Ashton mumbled a curse to himself, feeling inconsiderate. He turned off the radio all together and placed a hand on Luke’s thigh in an apologetic way.

 

The warmth was gone from Luke’s leg after a few moments. Ashton’s hands were now on the wheel, focusing on his driving. The car had started to move and Luke suddenly remembered what his mother had said to him when he was younger. His mother did not trust anyone else to drive Luke anywhere aside from herself, his dad, and his brothers. She said it was too dangerous, that whoever was driving him wouldn’t know the first thing about safety. She had theories of the accidents that Luke could possibly get into when driving with someone who wasn’t his apart of his family. Luke, at the moment, shook that thought off.

 

An abrupt stop made Luke jump. His head whipped around to look at Ashton. He found him angrily honking the driver ahead of them, and by the looks of it, cursing at whomever it was. Luke smiled, Ashton wasn’t far off from his brothers. His brothers had a tendency to be overprotective of Luke- his mother even said before Luke had possessed his disability, Jack and Ben were always looking out for Luke.

 

Luke shook his head at himself. He has absolutely no idea where they are going. He started to pay attention to the surroundings, glad they weren’t in some deserted part of town. He recognized where they were as soon as they passed an old abandoned building that his brothers say was once a low-budget strip club. Luke, being a hormonal fourteen-year old at the time, he went to go check it out one night. He left the house and when he wasn’t home by morning, his family was in a frenzy searching for him. It only took an hour after they realized Luke was missing that he was at the strip club, courtesy of Jack and Ben. The two got grounded and had immense chores and no social life for two months and Luke was trapped in his house, which was no punishment because it was already what his life had been since he could remember.

 

He shook off the memory. It had been a laugh when he slept at the abandoned building, peaceful- not in sound but in his surroundings. The building resembled nothing like a strip club- not that fourteen-year old Luke would know. There was only a platform that Luke only thought of the stage present when the bar was lively, and a few spotlights in the rafters above. There was a bar in far corner and too many electrical plugs. Luke, as a young teen, came to the conclusion that if he weren’t told that the place he slept in was a strip club before he came in, he wouldn’t have known. He felt comfortable otherwise.

 

The car was stopped and Luke was pulled back into the present. The car door on his right side was held open and a patient Ashton was waiting with the door handle in his hands. Ashton had the door open for a whole thirty seconds before Luke noticed, but he didn’t mind. Luke stepped out of Ashton’s car and immediately stuck his hands in his pocket. The air was cold and it bothered Luke. Despite it being a considerably warm day during summer, of course Luke would be the one to find it with cold, biting weather.

 

Ashton may or may not have asked Luke if he wanted his coat, but either way, Luke felt the warmth of the soft cotton around his shoulders within seconds of his shiver. He looked over at Ashton who was smiling at him, a smile in which Luke reciprocated.

 

Luke pretended not to acknowledge Ashton’s hand on the small of his back as they walked to wherever Ashton was leading them. It had occurred to Luke that someone could notice them. He was not sure about Ashton knowing anyone that could possibly get him in trouble for being out of school, but Luke does. His mother’s co-workers were usually around in town at this time for lunch or a break. Luke reached for the hood of Ashton’s jacket and was engulfed in the smell of Ashton. A mixture of sweat, cologne, mint, and lilies was what Luke smelled.

 

They turned onto a street. The whole street was basically vacant. Luke spotted the abandoned building from when he was fourteen and smiled. Ashton noticed the smile on Luke’s face, but he didn’t ask what it was for. He was embarrassed he would make more of a fool of himself.

 

Luke noticed that they were heading toward the end of the street- which was also a dead end. His mother always told him stories about the building at the end of Ponte Lane. The whole town knew it to be as the oldest building to date. The building oddly resembled a castle and was made of fine masonry. The roof tiles were worn and the windows were smashed. Mill’s Castle didn’t give off the eerie-vibe, however. The name comes from the previous owner of the building, who was alive nearly a century ago. The building was once a mill, but it was old and torn down and now resembled a castle found in an old fairy tale. The rickety building still gave an odd pristine look and always had a car parked in front of the pathway leading to the white-picket fence.

 

Luke paused for a moment. “Where are we going?” he asked Ashton, glancing around his surroundings. The nearest people were on the main street that passed over the street they were on at the moment.

 

Ashton went to sign, but he realized he wasn’t sure how to sign where they were going, so he went with a point. Luke shuddered when he followed Ashton’s callused finger to the old castle. Luke knew not to be afraid of the old building, but he couldn’t help it. When he took a closer look at the castle, the car that always rested in front of the building was present.

 

“Someone is in there,” Luke said. Ashton furrowed his eyebrows. Luke frowned and pointed at the red, wrecked car parked in front of the building. Ashton just smiled, shrugging his shoulders as if to say “no worries.”

 

Luke wondered what Ashton was up to. They reached the front door of the castle and Luke bit his lip. He had his theories about the castle. His stories were almost as horrible as his mother’s theories about driving with another driver. When he was first told the story, he imagined the house being haunted by Mr. Devin Miller and all the workers that had previously worked there. After passing the castle every day when he was fifteen, he thought that Mr. Miller was still alive and ran the mill house when the whole town was sleeping. Now, he wasn’t sure. He realized that both the stories are ridiculous, but he still hated being near the building.

Ashton easily opened the door as if he visited the building frequently and it was the his second home. Ashton looked over his shoulder, noticing that Luke was still standing outside the door. He rolled his eyes and laughed. He pulled Luke in by tugging his jacket sleeve. He could see how the house didn’t have the certain appeal that, say, a fairytale castle, but he loved it here.

 

Ashton lead Luke to the stairs. Luke paused once more. Ashton could see it in Luke’s eyes that he was questioning the safety of the stairs. Ashton laughed once more, stomping on the stairs and giving a thumbs up. Luke looked as if he nearly had a heart attack. The jolt that went through Luke’s body heightened when Ashton ran up the stairs, stomping and jumping as he went up.

 

Luke sighed. He rested a foot on the first step, tapping it lightly. His head whipped up to where Ashton was- which was halfway up the spiral staircase. Ashton was waving his hands and flailing his arms in a gesture for Luke to come up. Luke grimaced. He was absolutely reluctant in going up, but he went and did so anyway.

 

He hurried so he met Ashton halfway, not wanting to go up alone. Ashton smiled. Then, they both started for the roof of the building. Luke had no idea the castle had a flat roof. He was always exposed to the angle of the castle where he could only see the front of it, as if it were in one dimension. It was a lovely rooftop and looked as if someone had been up here many times. He glanced at Ashton who made himself at home on a park bench that was nailed to the roof.

 

Ashton gestured Luke to come over and patted on the seat next to him. Luke noticed that Ashton pulled out his notebook and a pen once more. Luke saw that there was already something written on the inside of the page. He hurried over to see, not realizing he had nearly sat on Ashton’s lap.

 

_I know it’s strange that we’re up here, but the car down there is my sister’s. She had her eye on it for awhile and it belonged to the owner of the building next to this one, St. Peters, the bar place. So, I bought it for her a few years ago and now she’s finally learning how to drive. It gives a little background on this place._

 

Luke still had questions.

 

_Why are you up here and why do you come here? Aren’t we trespassing?_

 

Ashton barked out a laugh as he shook his head. His handwriting was a bit shaky as the wrote on each other’s laps. _You’re too scared of getting caught. It’s okay though, so am I. My parents bought this place a few years back, but never gotten to do anything with it. So, now it’s sort of like a playhouse for me. Or a man cave, I guess you could say._

 

Luke let out a breathy laugh, clearing his throat. He was in Ashton’s man cave. _Do you bring all your friends up here, then?_ Luke just had to know.

 

Ashton’s smile faded for a moment. _No, you’re the first. Parent’s don’t even know I go here._ With Luke being Luke, he couldn’t help but feel special.

 

Luke stood up after not knowing what to say anymore. He walked over to the ledge of the roof top. They weren’t far from the ground, but they weren’t exactly near it either. He rested his elbows on the ledge and his head in his hands. He looked out at the cloudy skies. The sun barely shone through the grey clouds and he sighed. He loved days like this. He hated the sunlight.

 

He could see the empty street they were on that contrasted with the major busy street and the cozy minor streets. He spotted the coffee house his mother and father go to when they both miraculously have a day off on the same day. He saw the clothing shop his mother shopped at for the past twenty-five years for him and his brothers until they were ten. His mother figured once they passed the double-digits, they could dress on their own. Luke proved her wrong by wearing his mum’s bra as a hat and father’s briefs around in the house, claiming to be a superhero. He was dressed by his mum until he was twelve.

 

Suddenly, a notebook was slid in front of him, nearly falling over the ledge if it weren’t for Ashton’s quick hands. Luke jumped back, his hands flailing but failing to catch the notebook. Ashton’s notebook was in Ashton’s hands quicker than Luke could focus himself on his surroundings. Ashton was holding the notebook in front of him, nudging the book so Luke would hurry and read it.

 

_What are you thinking about?_

Luke grins. He snatched the pen from Ashton’s hands, which Luke noticed was now blue instead of the dying black ink.

 

_My family._

Luke handed both the notebook and pen back to Ashton. Ashton’s eyes quickly scanned over the notebook and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. Ashton was in the middle of writing a response back when Luke realized something about his family. He noticed Ashton’s wristwatch and dove for it, staring at the digital clock. It was an hour past school’s letting out and his brothers must be worried. Luke patted around his body for his phone and let out a frustrated sigh for putting his phone on silent. In the past hour school has been out, Luke received twenty-five messages from Jack, thirty-two from Ben, twelve from his father, and a whopping fifty-seven from his mother. He was in so much trouble.

 

 _Are you okay?_ Luke read from the notebook Ashton shoved in his hands. Your family was scribbled out to write the previous question Luke read. Luke shook his head in response. He grabbed the pen once more and wrote, _I need to get back to school. My family is freaking out._

 

Ashton just nodded his head. He cupped his hand and flailed it back and forth, a gesture which meant to follow him. Luke wasn’t afraid of the staircase this time, he was more afraid of his mother. Luke, more or less, ran to Ashton’s car. Ashton laughed, jogging behind him.

 

Luke slammed the car door as he sat down. He tapped his foot impatiently against the car’s floor and pulled the seatbelt on. Ashton easily slid into the car and placed his keys into the ignition. The car started to move after then. Luke didn’t realize his knee didn’t stop shaking until Ashton applied some pressure with his hand onto his knee. Luke relaxed after then.

 

As soon as they reached the parking lot, Luke saw his brothers. He slumped in his seat, reluctant to get out. Not only because he didn’t want to leave Ashton but because his brothers would do serious hand motions that would get jumbled up with each word they signed. He unbuckled his seatbelt and thanked Ashton. He had an apologetic look in his eyes and Luke only waved as he slammed the door shut.

 

Jack and Ben spotted Luke immediately. Their hands were already twitching, preparing for a painstakingly long rant.

 

And the day ended with that for Luke.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly couldn't remember what Red Dune's name was and was too lazy to look back. Oops, I know, it's bad of me to not know my own characters. And I have no idea if Ponte Lane exists, but I would love it if it did. Oh, and a little smut heading your way in a few chapters. I wanted to start this out as a "Mature" fic because I wasn't sure which direction I was going in with this, so after anything saucy happens, it's an "Explicit" fic. 
> 
> And, I wanted to say thanks for the super nice comments, it means so much. I'll probably update after finals or before finals. I don't know. Just keep the encouragement up, please. 
> 
> \- Anika


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke gets sympathy from his family, then gives sympathy to Michael and finally gets the courage to communicate thoroughly with Ashton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, but here is chapter four!

Ben’s hands were flailing and everything he was saying was almost indecipherable. Luke wanted to ask what the big fuss was about, but he quickly decided against it- plus, the fact that none of his family members would let him talk at all.

 

“You’re kidding me, right?” Ben continued after the occasional itching of his palms and cracking of his knuckles. “Who the hell was that kid, anyways?” The question was an easy one, of course, but Luke wasn’t sure whether to answer it or not.

 

Luke knew that Ashton wasn’t a bad influence per se, he hasn’t done anything to put Luke in danger. However, if Luke brought up what he and Ashton had done earlier in the day, he would have been grounded for as long as he could be grounded and be forbidden to see Ashton again. His thoughts were only a bit off from extreme.

 

He thought his day had ended with the scolding he got from Jack and Ben in the car, but apparently, he was completely wrong. He still had his mother to face and his father who had left for work. So, Luke knew that he would inevitably have to wait until tomorrow morning for the argument on where he had been the earlier afternoon to be over.

 

So, Luke sat and sulked. Ben went on with his hand gestures with handfuls of rhetorical questions until his mother took over. The actions were basically the same. There was a long scold, a second scold, the aftermath, and the blatant apology. After then, he was ordered to march up to his room and stay there.

 

Luke was glad his mother was so enraged, a punishment wasn’t put into order. The usual punishment for when he or any of his brothers were found in trouble, was taking a phone away or grounding them from any outside activities. Although, that was the least of Luke’s worries. He would always see Ashton at school. His worry of the moment was that he had left his backpack in the back of Ashton’s car. His homework was left with no visible traces of him even trying.

 

He sometimes regretted his indecision within himself. He wished that he would build up the courage to just smoothly talk to someone, especially about giving a phone number too. Luke found that “smooth talking” ability to be a prize in some occasions. If only he could have built up the courage to ask Ashton for his number, he could message Ashton in flirtatiously awkward way, asking for his backpack. Nonetheless, those events would most likely never happen and Luke would just have to deal with not having any homework to turn in tomorrow.

 

Luckily, the only class he had homework in was after lunch. He had the sudden idea of just working on it during lunch, but he was afraid of whether he would be finished in time or not. Inevitably, he laid down in bed, shutting his eyes and thinking of tomorrow’s events. He wondered if Ashton noticed Luke’s backpack sitting carelessly in his car.

 

He drifted off to sleep with the thoughts of Ashton and how pissed off his biology teacher would be when he didn’t turn in his homework tomorrow. His worries were, unfortunately, not slept off. He awoke in the morning, groggy and tired as usual, with seven text messages from Michael. He frowned. Michael wasn’t one to text with such urgency, but when he took a glimpse at the all capitalization of the messages, he took notice fast.

 

Michael: _luke, calum is pissed off bc ashton has your stuff or something_

 

Michael: _luke why does he have your stuff_

 

Michael: _calum thinks he like stole it_

 

Michael: _i don’t even know why he knows ashton has your stuff_

 

Michael: _LUKE ANSWER ME._

 

Michael: _calum is scaring the hell out of me_

Michael: _LUKE._

 

Each message were in the span of three minutes. The messages were sent a few minutes after midnight. His frown only deepened. He wasn’t sure of what to reply. Sure, he could tell Michael that he was merely just hanging out with Ashton, but he couldn’t say he ditched school as well. Luke didn’t want anyone to know he ditched school.

  
His mind ran through multiple scenarios. He could just say that Ben and Jack couldn’t give him a ride home yesterday and that Ashton was kind enough to offer. Then, he could easily shift the weight onto Michael and ask why he and Calum were arguing over a backpack at midnight.

 

Luke’s plan was foolproof- or at least to him it was. Although, the train of thought did start his brain to a whole other lot of questions. He wondered what Ashton did to Calum to make him so irritated and full of hate. Calum only ever sneered and scoffed around Ashton and Luke didn’t understand why. Michael didn’t understand why, either. He felt the need to ask Calum upfront, but he wasn’t close to him and he definitely couldn’t ask Michael to put a slight tear in their friendship to relinquish his curiosity.

 

So, Luke simply replied with: _ben couldn’t take me home, jack couldn’t either. ashton gave me a ride, no big deal. i left my backpack in there by accident. how did calum know?_

 

Luke placed his phone face down on the nightstand and stood up. He stretched out his torso, feeling an aching sensation in his sides. He yawned, his jaw dropping wide as he sauntered over to the bathroom. He washed his face with cool water and headed toward his closet. Indecisiveness was one way to describe Luke’s everyday attire. Luke was never sure as to whether he was “punk,” maybe “grunge,” and even a “indie” in a way. However, he ended up looking like a confused eighties singer who couldn’t transfuse into nineties pop culture. Either way, it was his style and he took a fondness to it.

 

A sudden vibration was made and Luke glanced up. His mother stood at the doorway with a slow grin. She stomped her foot down to fully get his attention. “Sorry for yesterday, sweetheart,” she signed, an endearing look on her calming facade. “You know that we worry about you, a lot,” she admitted, her shoulder slumping, “and I know you can take care of yourself, but I’m your mother. I have a need to take care of you, Luke.” Luke nodded in understanding and his mother pulled him in for a tight hug.

 

“Alright now,” she continued, a small smile playing at her lips, “breakfast’s ready. And I told Ben that you are supposed to be right beside his car within ten minutes of the school bell dismissal, okay?” Her hand movements were stern, but caring. Luke nodded once more, frowning slightly. He understood where his mother came from fully, but it still upset him. He could no longer rush away with Ashton in the middle of the day- no more spontaneity.

Luke trudged behind his mother, an alternate backpack slinging on one shoulder as he bounced down the stairs. Ben and Jack briefly glanced from the plate of food in front of them before continuing to stuff their faces. Luke might have even caught a grunt of acknowledgement from Ben with the way his chest in then out drastically.

 

He sat down for breakfast, pulling his plate near him. He poured a glass of water and snatched a piece of toast. He spread jam on the toast while his mother slid a hefty amount of scrambled eggs onto his plate. Luke spluttered out laughing at his mother’s need to feed each of her boys well. She gave a quick kiss on the cheek to Luke, Jack, and Ben, acknowledging her husband with a roll of her eyes. Ben and Jack laughed while Luke smiled.

 

“You’ll be late to school if you don’t start eating now, sweetie,” his mother chastised, demanding Luke to eat the remains on his plate. Ben patted Luke on the back, followed by Jack as they both headed toward Ben’s car.

 

Luke hurried to stuff his mouth and his mother shook her head. A gentle smile graced her face and she handed Luke a granola bar and an apple. She winked at him and told him to go with his brothers. Luke gave his mother a grateful look before he was shooed outside the house. He jumped into the car and Ben hit the road.

 

Luke noticed that Ben drove a bit stiffly this morning. He glanced at Jack, both exchanging knowing looks. Jack shrugged his shoulders dismissively, but Luke knew that Jack knew what was wrong. Usually, when Ben was angry or agitated about a topic or subject, it was nothing too big. However, his moods never affected the way he drove- even to the point of putting other people in danger. Luke had nothing to worry about, or at least that’s what he told himself. Ben was probably just stiff from the night’s sleep.  Ben’s bed is unnaturally uncomfortable at times.

 

By the time they were at school, Ben had managed to drive them to be ten minutes early. Luke was relieved, he was never on time to his first period class- or at least always almost late. The ten minute start gave him time to hurry to find Ashton and his backpack. Luke grimaced, knowing his challenge. He had no idea where Ashton’s locker was or what Ashton’s number was, there was no way of communicating with him whatsoever. Luckily for Luke, Ashton was waiting for him at his locker, backpack in hand.

 

“Oh, thank you so much, Ashton!” he exclaimed, grasping for his backpack and letting his alternate backpack slip to the floor. “I had so much homework, or, I mean, I had one page of homework, but it still made me psych out-” he stopped himself because he had noticed Ashton’s smile fall off of his face. Luke furrowed his eyebrows. Then, he realized what he had done- he realized he had done this multiple times. “I’m sorry,” he signed slowly.

 

Ashton shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he reciprocated, nodding his head along with his hand movements.

 

"What are you sorry for?" Luke questioned, momentarily confused.

 

"Not understanding," Ashton spelled out slowly, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

 

Luke frowned and shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he spoke, his hands slowly dragging out each movement.

 

Ashton gave a silent nod, a soft smile playing at his lips. Then, he indicated with a point of his fingers of the bell sounding. Luke nodded his head in acknowledgement and gave a quick grin before sprinting down the hallway.

 

The only subject on Luke's mind was finishing the half page of homework he had last night. His mind was barely on Ashton's smile and nervous hands- or at least he kept telling himself not to be distracted. Math was never a topic to focus on for Luke, anyways.

 

The periods before lunch were not anticipated.

 

Luke was hit several times in the side during P.E. and nothing short of boring in economics that day. He wondered how Mr. Mintel never seemed to have set lesson plan. He wasn’t bothered by it, however. He was glad he had nothing to pay attention about. He lazed through most of the day until lunch.

 

Then, the bell excused him out of economics and into the lunch rush. He pushed his way through to his lockers. He dumped his books into his tight-spaced locker and headed toward the open lunch area. He spotted Michael and Calum. As soon as he came within a five-foot distance, Calum noticed him. His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed.

 

Calum settled his hands onto the lunch table and pushed himself up. “So, Ashton, huh?” he questioned, nonchalantly. His tone didn’t match the angered expression that settled into his face.

 

“He only gave me a ride home,” he answered with a shrug of his shoulders. He caught Michael’s look of warning before sitting himself across from the two. “I left my backpack in his car,” he filled in. “How’d you even know about it?”

 

Calum slowly sat back down, his hands turning into clenched fists. “Saw you leaving, ditching, really,” he accused, scoffing.

 

Luke rolled his eyes. He reached over into his backpack and pulled out a copy of the book they were reading in English. He was behind on five chapters and Literature was the period after lunch. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to catch up, so he planned to skim through the chapters.

 

Michael waved his hands in front of Luke. Luke startled and his head shot up. He gave Michael a questioning look. “You know, the internet exists for many reasons. One of them being the outlining notes of each chapter of that bugging book.”

 

Luke shook the comment off. He didn’t want to cheat. Well, it wasn’t cheating entirely, but it still felt wrong to do so. His eyes only skimmed each page for a total of five seconds before flipping to the next page. He got bits and pieces of each chapter.

 

“If  you think you can pull of skimming through _Othello_ , good luck,” Michael signed. He gave him an amusing look and shook his head. His fringe fell in front of his eyes and he flipped his head back to pull it back.

 

Luke noticed, halfway through the awkward silence of the lunch table, that he didn’t have anything to eat. He recalled shoving a granola bar into his backpack a few days back. As he rummaged through his backpack for the sole granola bar, he came across his math homework. Sudden relief washed over him that there was a substitute teacher in Algebra who didn’t bother to collect homework. He chastised himself for letting the thought completely slip, anyways.

 

He glanced up and noticed everybody had started packing and throwing away lunches. He sighed, either of relief or dread of the next class, and crammed his book back into his backpack. He waved a short goodbye to Calum and a sympathetic smile to Michael as he headed toward his next class.

 

As he pulled into the hallway of sciences, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and found Ashton, smiling down at him.

“You didn’t talk to me during…” Ashton paused at the word, trying to find it. He twisted his hands and came up with nothing. He let out a breathy laugh and gave a lopsided grin.

 

“Lunch?” Luke filled in, reciprocating Ashton’s grin. Ashton nodded, his smile becoming larger.

 

They stood in silence. Luke signaled to his biology class and slowly started to walk backwards to the class. Ashton’s eyes widened, almost alarmed. He held his hands as if saying, “Wait!” Luke paused and Ashton jogged over to him.

 

“I don’t want things to be awkward,” he said. “I know we don’t have much in common and I did get you in trouble yesterday and I’m sorry.” His hands were jumbled, but Luke got the jist. He nodded in appreciation.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied with a quaint smile. “I have to go, though.” He turned, then abruptly stopped. “Can I have your number?” he asked. His eyes widened, then he quickly added, “If it’s alright with you?”

 

Ashton chuckled, nodding his head. He slipped out his phone from his back pocket, as did Luke. They traded off phones and quickly tapped in their numbers. They switched back and laughed quietly.

 

“See you around,” Ashton murmured. He paused, noticing Luke didn’t understand what he had said. He shook it off and waved him away.

 

Luke reciprocated the wave and headed toward biology: the class of absolute hell.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I feel like this was short, but I think it's the same length as all of the others. I'm not sure, I don't really remember. Anyways, tell me how sloppy it was because I know it was, haha. So, if you liked it, yay, if you didn't, oh well. Tell me if there's anything I could finish or add onto the next chapter.
> 
> \- Anika

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I should continue this story or not, with my busy schedule and all, but if it gets good feedback, I'll try and publish the next chapter as soon as possible.
> 
> \- Anika


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